This stunning two-hundred-page hardcover looks at the evolution of Mike Mignola's art over ten years on his award-winning, soon-to-be-a-major-motion-picture, creator-owned comics series. Featuring previously unpublished art, unused and unfinished covers, and drawing upon ten years of sketchbooks, The Art of Hellboy provides the ultimate inside look at Mignola's design, storytelling, and color work. Page after page of never-before-seen art reveals the labor involved in creating one of comics' most acclaimed creations.

Product Description

Review

Ottakar's Outland Magazine Issue 31, Autumn 2004 : "Rather like an X'-File' investigating the 'X-files', the lantern chinned, wisecracking Hellboy is one of the most endearing heroes to have emerged in comics for a long time, coming across as fresh, inventive, and, above all, highly entertaining."
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Mike Mignola is the acclaimed creator of Hellboy and Zombieworld, and has drawn Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, Aliens and Cloak and Dagger.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Most helpful customer reviews

Mike Mignola is the master of what not to put in a finished peice of art. While he draws loads of details with the original pencil lines as soon as the ink is applied, he buries them. What makes that technique work so well is that regardless of no evidence of the black flooded pencils the viewer knows the details are there. That masterful ambiguity is what makes the Hellboy art so creepy, menacing. From out of the shadows lurch horrors not meant for the eyes of humans. This is quirky, fun and scary without having to overwork the skilled designs and careful layouts. When I look at all the cartoony comic artists, with their minimalist leanings, and contrast them with the guys who insist on drawing every hair on a head while laying in invented overdone musculature that fairly bulges through a sweatshirt, it is refreshing to see Mignola's seeming ease and inpeccable black spotting that shapes even the things not seen, but definitely suspected, along with shambling ancient horror and explosions of combative violence in the defense of the human race against festering ancient evil.Words? In this book? My brain is full of words unread but ever present. That's Mike's other gift to me.My only question is when will we see a volume collecting his myriad other works?

Mike Mignola's comic books are great. You should buy them instead of this overpriced collection of Mignola art. The very thing that makes Hellboy so beautiful, the simplicity and elegance of design, means that looking at a Mignola sketch is exactly like looking at a finished comic book panel, except you can see the India ink brush marks in the black areas, and there is no supporting narrative thrust to give the picture meaning. The same goes for his pencils (of which there are few included- I don't think this guy makes a mark on paper without inking and publishing it). There is not even a discussion of Mignola's sources or inspirations, no bibliography of the occult (oh, I forgot, we're living in post-literate America). There is no insight to be gained by investing in the Art of Hellboy, because it is just a sampler of beautifully designed panels that look better in the comic books.

I don't know if I'd really say that Mike Mignola is one of my 100%, all-time favorite artists, though I do like his work. Even so, when I saw this book I just had to buy it (even at the fairly steep cover price) because it's just plain beautiful. It has to be one of the best-produced art books I've ever seen. The reproduction, even on Mignola's little scribbles and sketches, is top notch. Yoo can actually see his brush strokes in the black ink, and the non-repro blue sketch lines that would fall away in the normal comic book printing process. Even if you've seen many of these comic pages and drawings before, you'll see them in a new light once you view them here. If you're one of those who loves to see how artists do what they do, get this book.

I paid retail for this book and have no qualms about doing so. It's defintely worth it, whether bought from Amazon or some other vendor. The Art of Hellboy is an oversized cloth-bound harcover with embossing, metallic ink, and a glued illustration on the cover. A fairly short introduction gets you set up for the barrage of Hellboy-related art that is to follow! You get color works, covers, pin-ups, sketches, preliminary drawings, comic page roughs, completed comic pages, concept art... the list goes on and on. The only downside is that many of these pieces have either been used in other Hellboy books or have appeared elsewhere. Still, it's nice to see them in a larger size. This is a beautiful book, end of story!